Video: Astorino says kids will opt out of Common Core exams

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino said today that his three school-aged children won't participate in new testing standards as part of the Common Core exams starting this week.

Astorino, the Westchester County executive, said in a video message that he and his wife, Sheila, have decided that his children will opt out of the controversial testing, and he repeatedly blamed Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the problem.

"Our family's protest tomorrow is a symbolic one," Astorino said in the four-minute video. "But as parents, we think it's important to take a stand. Our children aren't guinea pigs, Governor Cuomo, and we want them educated by teachers - not faceless bureaucrats in Washington."

Cuomo has supported tougher testing standards for students and teachers. But he has in recent months knocked the implementation of Common Core, the national testing standards that started last school year in New York. He has said that the state Education Department, which is out of his control, is to blame for the troubles with exams -- which critics say were rushed into schools.

Cuomo and legislative leaders in the state budget to be approved Monday are making changes to Common Core.

School districts would be prohibited from placing Common Core-based test scores in grades 3 through 8 on a student's transcript if they are taken before the end of 2018, according to the budget. School districts also couldn’t use the scores as the "major factor" in promoting a student to the next grade.

But the test results would still count in evaluating teachers’ performance.

Cuomo said Saturday that the change will remove the anxiety that parents, teachers and students are feeling from the exams.

Astorino has regularly sought to tie Cuomo to the troubled exams, and repeatedly labeled it "Cuomo's Common Core" in the video.

"We don't coddle our children. We are demanding parents with high standards and expectations," Astorino said. "But from what we have seen so far, Cuomo's Common Core may be damaging their education, not helping it."